Not one, but two Adele albums hit 2011 chart

Adele can continue revelling in the success 2011 has brought her with the knowledge that her two studio albums have become the biggest-selling albums of the year so far.

Figures from the Official Charts Company show that the singer has sold 3.4 million copies of her award-winning album 21, while her rise to stardom has seen her debut album re-enter the charts as well.

Sales of 19, which was released in 2008, have reached 1.1 million copies this year alone.

Not only has Adele dominated 2011, but her second album has become the biggest-selling album of the 21st century in just over ten months of release.

Currently standing at number five in the charts this week (having climbed from number nine the week before), 21 has overtaken the previous record holder Amy Winehouse. Back to Black has so far sold 3.3 million copies since its release in 2006.

Also making it big this year is Bruno Mars, whose album Doo Wops & Hooligans has already become the third biggest-selling album of the year with 976,000 copies sold.

Rihanna’s album Loud (812,000 copies) and Lady Gaga’s second album Born this Way (689,000) complete the top five.

British acts Jessie J, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay are in the top ten list of 2011 with their releases.

Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto, which is tenth in the list with 467,000 copies sold, outsold the total sales of the UK album chart’s top five on its first week of release.

Completing the top ten biggest albums of 2011 is Cee Lo Green with The Lady Killer and, perhaps surprisingly, Christmas by Michael Buble.

Buble has already sold 496,000 copies of his Christmas album, despite it only being released in October.

The Official Charts Company put this down to the surge in Christmas shoppers who buy CDs as presents. It also predicted that these figures might change before the year ends as more people download music in December, including Amy Winehouse’s posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures.